…but god… Episode 16
Transcript
“Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:6-9 NASB
Finally this week we breakdown verse 9:
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
There are 3 key things in verse 9. Again God reminds Joshua that He has commanded him to be strong and courageous. It’s our duty it’s what God asks of us. If we truly are going to have a relationship with God we must do as He asks.
If we do what God asks of by being strong and courageous, then certainly there is going to be difficult circumstances that we must be resilient in.
God has an answer for that as well! “Don’t be dismayed”. He is saying, “I am here with you. “Did you think I’d leave you alone to feel overwhelmed when you are doing my will?”You see God is always with us caring about everything, the big and the small.
Let me impart a small miracle that happened recently. We had our grandsons with us a couple nights this week because our daughter Amanda and her husband have been sick with Covid. Travis (the 2 year old) usually sleeps 10-11 hours. The little one is teething and is up every 3-4 hours. Sharon and I tag team the duties. Yesterday was an especially difficult night. He woke at 12:45 and I was able to get him to go back to sleep by 1:00am. Then it was Sharon’s turn. He then woke up at 3:45 and was up until 5:00am.
I wake up for my day at 5:00am and I could see Sharon was exasperated. I took Aden and let Sharon go back to sleep. Aden fell asleep in my arms within 15 minutes. I was able to start my day with a slight delay. As I’m preparing my devotional for the morning I hear Travis the older one start to cry. I rush upstairs so he does not wake the younger one or Sharon. Usually when this happens I’m usually able to rock Travis back to sleep. Not yesterday. He wanted to go back to his bed and he wanted me to rub his back while he laid in bed. I was beginning to be stressed and worried that he would not get back to sleep before I had to leave for work, Sharon would not get rest and she would have to take care of both kids and then her blood sugars would be off all day…In the midst of that worry session God said “Aaron, Be strong and courageous, I am with you. I got this.” So I prayed as I rubbed Travis’ back, that he would fall asleep. Within minutes he was asleep. He slept another two hours! What an awesome little miracle.
What a great lesson that God cares about the little things. I should not be surprised about this. But I am. God wants to bless us, we just got to walk in His perfect, pleasing will and He will always give us strength and courage!
Thank you Lord for your promises which are new every morning. Give us the courage, strength and peace to trust in you. In Jesus Name.
Blessings and Have a great weekend.
Hosted by Chad McBeam
